Textile exports drop by 4.68 per cent in last 6 months

Pakistan’s export of textile items which has almost 60 per cent share in overall exports of the country has declined by 4.68 per cent in the first six months of the financial year 2011-12. Besides, according to available data, adding the downward trend of exports, various kinds of rice export has also shown at least 17 per cent decline in the last six months. A negative growth of 6.65 per cent in the export of petroleum group was also recorded during the first half of the current fiscal year.
However, cumulative exports for the period July-December, 2011-12 totaled $11.24 billion, as against $10.81 billion during the corresponding period of last
year, showing an increase of 3.9 per cent.
Group wise export shows a rapid growth, of 17.6 per cent and 13.4 per cent, in export of food group and manufacturing group, respectively.
Analysis of the top 10 highest export value products during July-December, show that cotton cloth and knitwear was the top exporting products whose export value was over $1 billion. However, export of cotton cloth grew by three per cent and export of knitwear witnessed a negative growth of five per cent. Other top four products, whose export value was above $500 million, were bedwear, readymade garments, cotton yarn and rice varieties. Only export of readymade garments grew positively, while other witnessed negative growth. Other food items which were the 7th top export item show a tremendous growth of 135 per cent, while export of naphtha, which is the 10th top export item, shows 24 per cent growth during the first of half of the year 2011-12.